Influência de indivíduos coespecíficos no comportamento acústico de machos de Hypsiboas goianus (Anura, Hylidae)

• Autor(a) principal: Morais, Alessandro Ribeiro de
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFG
• Texto Completo: http://repositorio.bc.ufg.br/tede/handle/tede/4272
• topic: Anuros; Vocalizações; Playback; Plasticidade acústica; Efeito do inimigo querido; Brasil Central; Anurans; Vocalizations; Pplayback; Acoustic plasticity; Dear enemy effect; Central Brazil; ECOLOGIA::ECOLOGIA APLICADA

Acoustic signals are a key element in social interactions in anuran amphibians. Accordingly, different types of vocalizations can be emitted in specific social contexts. Thus, this study investigated the influence of conspecific individuals on the vocal behavior of Hypsiboas goianus. Field observations and playback experiments were conducted at the Silvânia National Forest, Silvânia, Goiás, central Brazil, in the breeding season between 2011 and 2013. We used playback experiments of pre-recorded advertisement calls to test the influence of conspecific calls on the acoustic behavior of males of H. goianus. We found that males change their acoustic behavior after stimulation by conspecifics calls. Specifically, males decrease the interval between calls, the emission rate of advertisement calls, and the duration of pulses. Additionally, we tested whether males of H. goianus use acoustic signals to discriminate large- from small-sized conspecifics. We used an experimental approach with playbacks of synthetic advertisement calls built with different dominant frequencies. We used calls with low frequency (3,123 Hz) to simulate large-sized individuals, and calls with high frequency (3,573 Hz) to simulate small-sized individuals. Males of H. goianus significantly altered their acoustic behavior in response to high-frequency calls by shortening the duration and emission rate of advertisement calls, but increasing the duration and number of pulses of the short aggressive call. Conversely, there were no changes in the acoustic behavior of males when stimulated by low-frequency advertisement calls. Finally, we tested whether males of H. goianus respond less aggressively to close neighbors than unknown intruders. To test this, we used playback experiments to stimulate males of H. goianus with calls of both adjacent neighbors and distant individuals. However, there was no change in the acoustic behavior of males. Our results show that males of H. goianus not only modify their acoustic behavior in 13 response to conspecific males, but also asses their competitors by using acoustic signals. Thus, the acoustic plasticity of males of H. goianus not only maximizes signal transmission, but also overcome the acoustic interference of conspecifics.